Help me pick the right path

[Yngdmax92]

Hi guys, little past info. i have a 2003 duramax cc/sb. Bought it from my dad for very cheap (down payment of new 2012 lml he wanted). i went through the whole truck because it was in ruff shape. This included new rear end (jasper), new injectors at 174,000mi, new rockers, cab corners, front fenders, box sides, bed rails, two rear doors ( fronts were still good), new hood, new tow mirros, tint matched to rear doors, new, rear bumper, new hitch, pump rub transfer case, built trans, updated the ihi to a modded one and a down pipe and intake. Now its time for head gaskets, but here is my big dilemma and i am asking for your guys opinion on it.

Trucks got 184,000 on it now. I store it for winter because of all the money i put in it (4500$ for fresh paint alone and lifting the cab and sand blasting frame and re coating it). Now i have i think 1 or 2 injectors going out with balance rates ranging from 3-4 which are number 7 and 4. I am about too pull the engine and put new gaskets and put a low mileage lbz pump on it just because i am already in there along with some head studs.

What i am really have been thinking about is

option #1
Buying a lly out of a wreck, still doing gaskets, studs and updating pump to lbz low mileage along with throwing my lb7 y bridge, turbo, downpipe and passenger side up pipe to delete the egr and such.

option #2
selling my truck after i fix the injector issue. My HEAD GASKETS ARE NOT leaking but i am just deciding i should do it now before something happens. Would look into buying a lbz or lmm regular cab long box and just trans safe tunes and transgo

option #3
i need to buy a driver side head because i broke off a glow plug in the head and ending up drilling it and couldnt get the new glow plug to seal up and plugged it with a pipe plug for now. Then new injectors, then get the heads decked/valve job and then the gaskets and studs


REASONING for option for 1 and 2 is because i am constantly looking at my edge cs to check my balance rates on my injectors because i dread having to spend 2000$ on new injectors when i just did them like 13000 miles ago and bought quality injectors from merchant which i am pretty sure merchant gets through exergy but i am not 100percent sure. I put too much time and money into the truck and want to drive it another 5-8 years from now and not have to worry about dumping thousands of dollars into the truck. I know i turned it up and i am ready for failure if it happens at any time but i am sick an tired of doing injectors. So any opinions on some persuasion form you guys would be greatly appreciated

 

[Yngdmax92]

few pics for you guys

 

[MACKIN]

You already put money in you probably wont get back so you might as well keep going with it. Maybe since you are buying a head do a LLY head swap. There is a thread here "I have seen the impossible" I believe is the subject matter. This eliminates the LB7 injector issue

 

[bmc1025]

Your balance rate issue is more than likely the loss of compression from not having the glowplug taking up space in the combustion chamber on the one cylinder. If you can find an LLY for a reasonable price with lowish miles that would be the way to go. If not put new heads on it and the injectors are likely fine. If in doubt send them off to be tested. How many miles on them?

 

[Yngdmax92]

It has 185,000 miles on it. Aren't sending injectors out for cleaning pretty pricey? I have been looking for a lly pretty hard but they are hard to find. Where do you guys look for engines?

 

[bmc1025]

The injectors only have 10,000 mi on them according to your first post. Put the suspect injectors on the passenger side so it's easier to get to them if they are bad, if you don't want to have them tested.

 

[Yngdmax92]

Actually that has crossed my mind. The rest of them are in pretty dang good shape. All with in spec. I still have to do compression checks except number 8 because obviously i wont be able to utilize the glow plug whole anymore. Ill report back when i pull the truck out of storage. but that will have to wait till spring comes because i have it stored right now.

I think i still will be on the out look for a lly engine just to get rid of the lb7 injector issues. I know lly engines have their issues as well but i would feel better about things if i didnt have to worry

 

[Aaron@LDS]

If it's within the 1 year warranty you should contact Merchant Auto and have the injectors replaced free (except labor) 13k isn't that many miles...

If you do need to get injectors, try us out. We can probably save you a few hundred anyway.

 

[Yngdmax92]

I have tried that Aaron, They actually did indeed extend my warranty because I store my truck in the winter but they insisted that pics would have no proof that the injector was bad. So my truck would be down for 2 to 4 weeks again and I wasn't having that and they stated they would charge me 50 dollars to have them checked and then rein burst me the money if it failed like I said it did. To me if it is failing a balance rate test in my truck 8 months after I installed them then I would have to think that they are faulty. Plus, not to mention, so even if I did send them the one injector which is fine and dandy and I got the one replaced. The other three that I opened up just got contaminated and my engine even would swallow up some more dust and stuff again as well. Really not a win win situation for me on this one.

 

[Aaron@LDS]

I understand how you feel man. But I also know why they have those stipulations. In the end it's your choice to do what is best for you. We try to be a little more hassle free than that with warranties, but we would definitely try to confirm that they were causing more issues than just a balance rate being a tad high. The reason is because many times it's just because of bad fuel and a need for a new filter and a good cleaning, and other times it's a mechanical issue with the cylinder.

If your going to do the work, I would agree with Mackin and do the LLY swap.